In sticking with my letter theme from my last post.

We are taught so many common things in life.

We often get these “rules” locked into our brains over time.

These rules seem easy enough to follow and should make our life easier and better.

But are these rules correct for us at a specific point?   Or even more interesting, are these rules even correct?  Should we live our life actions by these rules we’ve learned?

Example Rule: “I before E except after C.”  Weird Science!

English grammar is a confusing mess.  Never mind trying to comprehend what a preposition or parable are?  Identifying a metaphor vs an analogy.  Or being a nonnative English speaker and understanding: There, Their, They’re or Where, Wear, Ware, We’re, Were, or Advise, Advice, Advisor, Adviser, Advicer.

I heard a life/retirement coach recently repeat the concept of:

• If you know your values,
• Does your bank account statement validate your values?
• Do you spend your money in line with your values?

Spend Money

In the moment, I thought, wow, I don’t think I really spend my money on my values.  To be fair, I haven’t dug into what my values are in detail.  I do want to do this, but it seems like a significant amount of effort and reflection.  I think I’d rather just be me and enjoy myself while being/doing some good.

Back in the day, after being on a 4S path–Save Significantly for Safety and Security path–I realized we had many years of life-spending set aside ready for use. 

That realization of future life cost coverage moved me toward the “when” planning stage.  When could we leave our careers and use our savings, investing, and deferred spending for ourselves?

Did I Optimize this future timing?

Did I Vision this future timing?

Did I wing-it, this future timing?

For so many of us in the FI community, reaching FI is the finish line.   You made it.  You reached your amazing goal. 

All those years and decades of planning, of sacrifice, of hyper-intentionality have paid off.  Literally paid off—you can see the dollars in your account statements.

But, whew, is this (that) the finish line?  

Wow, my last post was a long listen to Chris’ podcast, and before that was a really long (for me) post.  I thought this would take less of your time this month.

Often, a presentation is not solely about the topic.  The presentation you are watching is actually about someone sharing part of their soul with you.

It is someone sharing their being, their deep-down interest. 

For many speakers, they are not scared of public speaking–the act of standing in front of people and talking–but they are frightened of feeling like they are naked in front of you and having their chest torn open, and what you will think of them.

Instead of sharing my random thoughts all typed out from my brain, I am posting a quickly-needed podcast episode I recorded with my buddy in our stateroom on the FinTalks Alaska cruise, so Chris wouldn’t have to post a rerun.

I would say 1) listen at your own risk.  All kinds of random, crazy comments are made. 2) The preparation for this episode took less than 3 minutes because it was “what are you thinking, right now,” in the middle of this FI Family adventure.